Vintage Potholders

Collecting Vintage Potholders

Vintage potholders are useful as well as decorative, but I generally display the older potholders I come across to help them last longer. I'm too messy when I cook to use my nice vintage potholders!

I collect all sort of vintage linens, including potholders. Many older potholders were crocheted or knitted and are truly works of art. Their practical use that they were originally made for is often forgotten. They're just too pretty to use!

just maryse: Modern Vintage Potholdera place to put my "stuff" so that i don't hurt someone -- Modern Vintage Potholder This pattern was inspired by an old crocheted potholder that I found at a local flea market. I loved the simplicity of it and thought it would lend itself well to a si

Basic Pot Holders To Sew: {Vintage Patterns} : TipNut.comBasic Pot Holders To Sew: Vintage Patterns -- Pot holders are always a necessity in the kitchen and they may be made in many shapes and forms. Use bright scraps of washable fabrics such as gingham and percale. Cotton batting or scraps of woolen fabri

Sewing with the sparrows: Vintage Potholders With PatternI picked up this vintage crochet book from Out Of The Ashes. She sells all kinds of vintage sewing pattern and a few vintage knitting and crochet books. Mine is The Magic Of Crochet (Gifts). It is copyright 1941 by the Spool Cotton Company.

History of the Potholder

The lowly potholder is mostly a utilitarian tool we use when we cook. Many days I use a potholder to get a hot dish or plate from the microwave, not from the oven or stove top. Sadly, my cooking consists of reheating much of the time.

In days past, cooks relied on potholders to remove hot pans from the stove or from an oven that was hard to regulate. Potholders were very important.

Rachel Maines wrote an article for The Journal of Popular Art in 1985. In Evolution of the Potholder, Maines discusses when the potholder might have been used extensively in homes (about two centuries ago). Many potholders that still exist were thin and she writes that "these are so thin and dysfunctional for cooking that they are more likely to have been used in the parlor or dining room than in the kitchen."

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Do You Use Vintage Potholders or Collect Them?

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julieannbrady

5 years ago

My grandma collected vintage potholders! Lots of crochet ones too.

MariePalmer LM

7 years ago

Oh yea, now we are talking. This is my kind of lens!!!! Glad I found it!

Frischy

7 years agofrom Kentucky, USA

I have a few, but I do not use them. I usually use one of the potholders my niece made when she was little out of potholder loops. Love those things!

DeclutterDiary

7 years ago

These are beautiful!!...

Julia M S Pearce

7 years agofrom Melbourne, Australia

I remember my mother having similar pot holders.Lovely!

Pam Irie

7 years agofrom Land of Aloha

I'm revisiting to see what's new with your vintage potholders...I adore kitchen potholders like these!

AUTHOR

Peggy Hazelwood

7 years agofrom Desert Southwest, U.S.A.

@evelynsaenz1: Evelyn, I don't but I would imagine useful everyday ones were very simple. Some fancy ones may have been crocheted like some I've shown. I do remember reading that many women from that era died from their dresses and aprons catching fire while cooking. Yikes!

Evelyn Saenz

7 years agofrom Royalton

I need to get some vintage potholders for my Bed and Breakfast. Do you know what potholders looked like in 1840?

glowchick

7 years ago

I don't collect them but I love all the interesting ones your found :)

kathysart

7 years ago

So cool! I need potholders so bad, maybe I'll get vintage one.. great idea. THUMBS UP and ANGEL BLESSED. whooot whooot!

Pam Irie

7 years agofrom Land of Aloha

I collect a few vintage potholders. I'd love to have one of those bottle cap "bunch of grapes" potholders. Came upon a pattern this summer and plan to crochet one of these vintage style potholders as soon as I can.

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